NOTES and REVISION MATERIALS
Language A: Language & Literature
2022
Name: _________________________
Teacher: YZK
Room: 11
Greta Gerwig – Director.
Greta Gerwig (born Aug. 4, 1983, Sacramento, California, United States) is an American film director, writer and actress.
Gerwig’s work bears a powerful personal imprint. Her films are often based on her own experiences and marked by
common themes around the growth and emotional maturation of the leading woman as well as relationships among
family members, friends, and significant others, with a special interest in female dynamics. Her characters are never
villainized, and all are sympathetic. She intends to imbue her films with a unique and specific deadpan sense of humour.
Visually they also carry a very specific atmosphere – simultaneously having the warmth of looking back on something in
memory and displaying things as they are, stripped of any sort of showiness. This is all easily observed in Lady Bird.
Gerwig was raised a Unitarian Universalist. She attended St. Francis High School, an all-girls Catholic school is Sacramento, and
graduated in 2002. She described herself as being an “intense child.” Gerwig intended to complete a degree in musical theatre
in New York but ended up graduating from Barnard College with a degree in English and philosophy. She has a long history of
credits as an actress and screenwriter. As she hadn’t been accepted to a playwriting M.F.A. programme after graduating college,
she took a small part in LOL (2006). Gerwig would go on to appear in more “mumblecore” films like this one but took bigger
roles in Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007), Baghead (2008) and Yeast (2008). Though Gerwig didn't become an A-list actor, she
remained busy. She was in The Humbling (2014) with Al Pacino and Rebecca Miller's Maggie's Plan (2016). Gerwig also
took on roles in Jackie (2016) and 20th Century Women (2016). And she voiced a part for Wes Anderson's animated film
Isle of Dogs (2018). In 2017, Gerwig made her solo directorial debut (after having co-directed Nights and Weekends) with
the coming-of-age comedy-drama film Lady Bird, which she also wrote.
In a behind-the-scenes video on the set of Lady Bird she said, "I tend to start with things from my own life, then pretty
quickly they spin out into their own orbit." Gerwig presses her actors to incorporate their personalities into their
performances as well, and says of her writing and directing, "it's all about actors." In addition, she allows little line
improvisation and the script is followed fairly closely. Gerwig is modest in her description of her role in the filmmaking
process and shies away for the term auteur, choosing instead to recognise the collaborative nature of her project. She
says: "Auteur theory undercuts how much a film is made by a group of people. And while I'm the person at the helm, I'm
also reliant on them interpreting the story their own way. And that's what I love about it."
Lady Bird – Introduction.
The film tells the story of teenager Christine (Saoirse Ronan), who insists on being called by her "given" name of Lady Bird
(as she puts it). Lady Bird is intent on leaving home as soon as she graduates from her Catholic high school. Set in early
2000s, the film takes place during her senior year where she experiences first love, joins the school musical and applies
for college. In particular, it examines her tempestuous relationship with her mother, Marion (Laurie Metcalf).
Ultimately, it becomes as much about Marion accepting that her daughter is growing up as it is about Lady Bird breaking
free of her childhood. Gerwig says of the relationship: "It’s not like you stop being a mother or you stop being a daughter,
but some version of it is ending. “I felt like that last year of high school is the most vivid. To me it was the moment when
all the stakes felt highest for that relationship. They could fight and it could be brutal, but underneath you knew that there
was this love."
The film is set in Gerwig’s hometown of Sacramento, but that's where the similarities to her own life end. She describes
her teenage years as "the opposite in a way. I was a rule-follower, I was a people-pleaser, I never made anyone call me by
a different name, I never dyed my hair bright red. I think a lot of what I gave Lady Bird were things that I would think but
not say. It was almost like it was the person I wish I could have been, but I didn’t have enough courage to do it - and then
even though she’s flawed, and she makes mistakes, she’s a heroine to me."
Themes.
The five major themes that we will examine in Lady Bird are:
1. Identity and belonging
2. Class struggles
3. Love and sexuality
4. Teenage apathy
5. Relationships
Characters.
The following is a character list with some commentary on each character. You will be expected to make further notes and
more detailed descriptions as we watch the film.
Main Characters:
Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson: The very title is a story in itself—when Christine is asked for her given name, she says “Lady
Bird” and explains, “It was given by myself to myself.” Her fierce struggle to be called by this name is the struggle over what she
got from, or is given by, her parents. Lady Bird wants, above all, to leave Sacramento, to go to college on the East Coast—if not
in New York, then “in Connecticut or New Hampshire, where writers live in the woods.” Marion insists that the family can hardly
afford for her to attend a state school, so Lady Bird asks her easygoing and good-humored father, Larry (Tracy Letts), to complete
a financial-aid application for her without telling Marion. He does so—but when the secret gets out, it drives a seemingly
irreparable wedge between Lady Bird and her mother.
“Lady Bird” takes its protagonist through adolescent solipsism to recognition and gratitude, through the hazards of friendship
complicated by matters of self-image and self-imagination, through openhearted but uncertain fumblings of romance, through
the unresolved and ever-mounting tensions of family life and the acknowledgment of its hard material practicalities, to a radiant
reconciliation with her family, her home town, and herself. Lady Bird’s fine-grained perceptions come with a delicate meter of
social distinctions and, with it, the desire for the pleasures, the sense of freedom, that money can buy—money that her parents
don’t have. All the relationships in the film are tempered and conditioned by money.
Marion McPherson: Almost a co-lead, Marion McPherson has become a magnificent synecdoche for the entire supporting cast
of “Lady Bird” (at least as far as awards season is concerned). She’s one of the best and most well-rounded movie moms ever,
which is especially impressive considering that she spends most of her time off-screen pulling double shifts at the hospital just
to keep her family from falling apart. Laurie Metcalf gloriously refuses to sand off any of Marion’s edges, and it’s so powerful
and rewarding to watch the hope she harbors for her daughter clash against the needs she keeps to herself. At the same time,
it’s remarkable to see how believably Metcalf is able to throw us into this story in media res, like she and Saoirse Ronan have
been playing these parts all their lives.
Their first scene together conveys everything that we’ll need to know for the 90 minutes to come: The year is 2002, Lady Bird
feels like she’s outgrown her home town, Marion worries that she hasn’t given her daughter the life she dreams of, and the
constant specter of money (or the lack thereof) is seeping into the raw sewage of love and guilt and resentment that runs
between them. Lady Bird and her mom might not see eye-to-eye, but this exchange is all it takes for us to understand their
respective points of view. It makes it possible for us to love them both, to share these characters’ hopes for themselves even
when they use them to hurt one another.
Larry McPherson: A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose roles in films like “Indignation” and “The Lovers” have made him
as indispensable to the screen as he is to the stage, Tracy Letts plays Lady Bird’s dad as a dignified man who’s caught between
two indomitable women. Cowed into playing the good cop, Letts’ character is left to mediate the volatile relationship between
his frazzled wife and their free-spirited teenager daughter — by the time the movie begins, that job is the only one he has left.
The character is defined by his quiet desperation (we’re told that he’s been living with depression for years), and it’s clear that
he’s deeply hurt by his inability to provide for his family. At the same time, there’s something so moving about how delicately
he intervenes, always doing what he can to bridge the gap between his wife and daughter and show them how much they love
each other.
Danny O’Neill: Lady Bird sets her eyes on Danny (Lucas Hedges) during auditions for the school musical. Her eyes fill with hearts
at the first note of his song selection: “Giants in the Sky” from Into the Woods(!). After a few more flirty encounters, the two
declare their love under the stars, where Lady Bird jokes that Danny is free to touch her boobs. (Though Danny says he respects
her too much, Lady Bird doesn’t offer us a knowing wink.) On the musical’s opening night, when Lady Bird walks in on Danny
kissing another boy, she’s obviously shocked and angry. But rather than frame Danny’s queerness as a betrayal or focus on Lady
Bird’s response, the story quickly moves on. Danny fades into the background for a bit. Once the smoke clears, though, the two
reconnect in a simple but effective scene that’s positioned as more formative for him than it is for her, the movie’s purported
protagonist.
Danny comes by the coffee shop where Lady Bird works to apologize, but she keeps her defenses up, clearly still hurt. He breaks
down, begging her not to tell anyone because he’s scared and needs time to figure out how to tell his family. She takes him into
a long embrace, and he cries in the arms of his first confidant. We watch Danny get exactly what he needs from her in that
moment to face the road ahead—love and forgiveness. What Lady Bird takes away from their reconciliation is left unsaid.
Julianne “Julie” Steffans: Elevating the best friend archetype into an art form, Julie Steffans is so much more than just another
sidekick. For one thing, Beanie Feldstein’s brilliant performance ensures that the character doesn’t only exist in Lady Bird’s
shadow. She’s so careful about what she allows to bubble up to the surface — watch how coyly she crushes on her teacher, or
the generosity with which she allows her BFF to be the center of attention. It’s devastatingly poignant to see Julie sneak a rare
moment of self-pity into the scene where she learns that she’s been cast against Lady Bird’s crush in the school play. “It’s
probably my only shot at that, you know?” Lady Bird is too busy thinking about herself to respond, but Julie forgives her for
that. Not because she’s so desperate for friendship that she allows herself to be run over (well, not only because of that), but
also because she has the perspective to see growing pains for what they are, and to judge people for their best selves instead
of for their worst moments.
Kyle Scheible: First of all, can we talk about how perfectly all the characters are named in this movie? He’s not just Kyle, he’s
Kyle Scheible. Those last two syllables really tell you everything you need to know. “Scheible” isn’t a teen heartthrob; “Scheible”
is the kind of shorthand that a writer might use to designate the resident dork in a bad workplace sitcom. And maybe that’s who
Kyle will grow up to become (although some bone structures just don’t belong in a cubicle), but for now he’s just Kyle, the
dreamy bassist who’s trying way too hard to keep sleepwalking through senior year.
Everything about Kyle is funny, because everything about Kyle feels true. We all knew that pretentious kid with a prefab
personality, the kind who still looked pretty even when his head was completely up his ass. He was definitely the first guy who
all of your friends had sex with. And while it would have been so easy for this hella tight, very baller character to slip into parody
(especially because one of his main jobs is to remind us that it’s 2003), Timothée Chalamet roots him in something real. He finds
the perfect middle ground between posturing and innocence, allowing us to laugh at Kyle without ever writing him off as a joke.
And while his last name might seem like the only sincere thing about him, Lady Bird eventually discovers otherwise when she
sees his terminally ill father dying in the living room. Gerwig waits until just after we’ve judged the character before she flips
the script, chipping away at this wannabe anarchist until he’s just a little boy who’s trying to completely inure himself to his
emotions before it’s too late.
Setting and Context.
Post 9/11 America.
Following excerpt taken from: How “Lady Bird” Captures The Seismic Shift Of Post-9/11 America by P. Claire Dodson.
In one of the opening sequences of Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, we see scenes from an all-girls Catholic high school: teens singing
hymns, teens in Spanish class, teens taking communion. In one classroom, a bulletin board is decorated with block letters that
read, “9/11 Never Forget.” It’s fall of 2002, almost exactly a year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And then quickly we’re back
to Lady Bird (played by Saoirse Ronan), who is more concerned with how she’s going to get into a New York college (and away
from her relatively normal life in Sacramento) than with current events. She’s in many ways a typical, self-centered but
ambitious teenager (the name Lady Bird is a self-upgrade of her given name, Christine)–she’s not agonizing over terrorism and
the ensuing war the U.S. is getting into. And yet, history and current events are embedded in how she and her friends and family
are interacting with the world.
“I’m always interested in how your personal life and history go together,” says Gerwig, who wrote and directed the film.
“Because I think often in films they’re portrayed as if they happen in distinct arenas.” In real life, the two arenas aren’t distinct.
We’ve felt that in 2017 possibly more than ever. We’re still dealing with actions and consequences set in motion by 9/11. Every
notable point in U.S. history has gradually gotten us to the divisive America we live in now. And yet, we fight with our parents,
eat snacks with our best friends, think about our dreams, and where we want to go next. “In a way, it felt to me like a way the
movie could explore what’s happening now without setting the film now,” Gerwig says.
Lady Bird sits in the middle of this tension, recreating a specific historical moment in a way that feels deeply personal and not
too heavy-handed. The film captures that feeling of not being in New York or D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001, of being distanced from
the action and experiencing it primarily through news broadcasts. “Obviously 9/11 was a terrible tragedy in New York, but it
was a national tragedy,” Gerwig says. “And it was experienced nationally, even all the way across the country where there
wasn’t an association with it literally. But it had some sort of seismic, shifting moment.”
The resulting fallout manifests in Lady Bird in ways both big and small. At several points in the film, we see Lady Bird on the
couch, watching Matt Lauer report from Afghanistan. Gerwig says she combed through old news footage to thread through the
movie, creating timelines of her characters’ lives and matching them with historical sequences of events. The economic effects
of 9/11 are felt more concretely, like when Lady Bird’s father Larry (Tracy Letts) loses his job at a bank. Later, he runs into his
son during a job interview– as it turns out, they’re both going for the same position. Meanwhile, the family is concerned about
how they will pay for Lady Bird’s college tuition, even as her mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf) works double shifts as a psychiatric
nurse.
“These undercurrents of what was happening and what was coming, the internet and cell phones, the speeding up of the erosion
of the middle class. All of that was going on then,” Gerwig says. “And we’re living through the consequences of a lot of that
now.” In one especially poignant moment, Lady Bird’s boyfriend Kyle (Timothée Chalamet) lies about losing his virginity to her.
When Lady Bird becomes visibly upset, Kyle is a little disdainful. He starts talking about how many Iraqi civilians have died at the
hands of the U.S. military–Lady Bird cuts him off. “Different things can be sad,” she says. “It’s not just war.”
It’s not that she doesn’t care about the state of the world, but “she also is just in her own opera,” Gerwig says. Part of Lady
Bird’s growth as a character is how she is forced to reckon with what is going on around her, with the huge ramifications of
globalization and terrorism, even as she faces the emotional turmoil of getting older and leaving the things and people who
make you feel secure.
Structure.
Director Greta Gerwig employed a linear narrative in the film. This means that the story is told in chronological order. Atypical
for most Hollywood films, however, Lady Bird is told in just two acts instead of the usual three. This suits the visual pairs we see
carried throughout the film.
Complete the following table by writing a brief description next to each narrative phase.
Exposition
Complication
Complication
Development
Development
Development
Climactic
moment
Resolution
Visual Motifs and Metaphors.
Pictured below are images of an important visual motif (symbolism) that emerges in the film. The camera is placed on the ceiling
and, looking directly down on Lady Bird and another character. Once you encounter the symbol in the film, return to this page
and write down a brief description of what the symbol represents and what ideas it relates back to.
Suggestion of higher power observing the film’s events:
Visual manifestation of film’s structure (two-shot - pairs):
Quotations.
Quotations are an important piece of supporting evidence that will be necessary when you start to plan and draft your essays
for the external examination. In order to be prepared, you should be writing down important quotes as we watch the film. At
the end of each quotation, you should explain what theme it relates back to. The following quotations from the film that
represent each theme:
Identity and belonging
Lady Bird: “Do you think I look like I’m from Sacramento?”
Marion: “You are from Sacramento.”
Lady Bird: “I wish I could live through something.”
Lady Bird: “I don’t even want to go to school in this State anyway. I hate California. I want to go to the East Coast.”
Lady Bird: “My name is Lady Bird!”
Reverend: “Is that your given name?”
Lady Bird: “Yeah … Well, I gave it to myself. It’s given to me, by me.”
Class struggles
Marion: “Your dad I will barely be able to afford in-state tuition … Your dad’s company is laying off people right and left, did
you even know that? No, of course you don’t because you don’t think about anybody but yourself.”
Lady Bird: “I’d have friends over all the time to study and eat snacks. I’d be like, ‘Mom, we’re taking the snacks upstairs to the
TV room.’”
Lady Bird: “Just pull over here.”
Larry: “Are you sure? I can drive you to the front.”
Lady Bird: “No, this is fine. I like to walk.”
Lady Bird: “It’s only $3. I’m having a hard week ... I want to read it in bed.”
Marion: “That’s something that rich people do. We’re not rich people.”
Lady Bird: “I’m from the wrong side of the tracks.”
Marion: “Your father doesn’t have a job. He lost his job.”
Marion: “Money is not life’s report card … Being successful doesn’t mean anything in and of itself. It just means that you’re
successful.”
Lady Bird: “Yea, but then you’re successful.”
Marion: “But that doesn’t mean you’re happy.”
Lady Bird: “But he’s not happy.”
Love and sexuality
Lady Bird: “You know, you can touch my boobs, right?”
Danny: “I know. It’s just that I respect you too much for that … I respect you so much because I love you.”
Lady Bird: “It’s normal to not touch a penis.”
Lady Bird: “I wasn’t flirting.”
Kyle: “Wish you had been.”
Lady Bird: “You’re gay.”
Danny: “Can you not tell anyone please? … I’m so ashamed of all of it.”
Lady Bird: “When do you think is a normal time to have sex?”
Lady Bird: “I’m ready to have sex.”
Teenage apathy
Lady Bird: “The only exciting thing about 2002 is that it’s a palindrome.”
Marion: “Okay, fine, well, yours is the worst life of all, so you win.”
Julie: “What about terrorism?”
Lady Bird: “Don’t be a republican.”
Lady Bird: “Different things can be sad. It’s not all war.”
Relationships
Lady Bird: “I’m sorry I’m not perfect.”
Marion: “No one’s asking you to be perfect.”
Marion: “You could never get into those schools anyway … You can’t even pass your driver’s test.”
Marion: “Just, you should just go to City College, you know, with your work ethic. Just go to City College, and then to jail, and
then back to City College. And then maybe you’d learn to pull yourself up, and not expect every …” (Lady Bird jumps out of
car).
Lady Bird (to Dad): “I need you to help me with the financial aid application, but Mom can’t know.”
Marion: “I just think it’s such a shame you’re spending your last Thanksgiving with a family you’ve never met instead of us, but
I guess you want it that way.”
Lady Bird: “You give me a number for how much it cost to raise me, and I’m going to get older and make a lot of money and
write you a check for what I owe you so that I never have to speak to you again.”
Marion: “Well, I highly doubt that you will be able to get a job good enough to do that.”
Lady Bird: “Do you like me?”
Marion: “I want you to be the very best version of yourself that you can be.”
Lady Bird: “I’m sorry, I know I can lie and not be a good person, but … Please mom. Please. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt
you. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. I’m ungrateful and I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I wanted more.”
Aspects.
You need to become familiar with the following visual and verbal language features. These are referred to as aspects.
Visual features
Cinematography
Shot types
Description
Extreme close-up
This shot type is used to draw the audience’s attention to
something that is important to the narrative and to focus on
that one thing.
Close up
This is used to draw the audience’s attention to something
while at the same time still showing something else that might
be significant in the frame. For example, a close-up might show
all the emotions that one character is experiencing.
Mid-close-up
This is often used to show conversations between people, as
the audience is able to see the person talking and also some of
the background, or the person who is being spoken to.
Mid-shot
This allows the audience to see the character’s movement. It is
used to show where the character is going, while still showing
the audience where the character is.
Long shot
The audience is able to see the entire person. This shot allows
the director to show the audience what the character is
wearing, where he or she is and also what else is in the scene.
Establishing shot
This is a shot taken from a distance which allows the viewer to
see the setting of a scene. This type of shot is often used at the
beginning of a film or scene.
High-angle shot
The camera is positioned higher than the subject of the shot.
This makes the subject of the shot look small, weak and
vulnerable. This is often used on victim just before they are
attacked.
Illustration
Low-angle shot
Type of movement
The camera is positioned lower than the subject of the shot.
This makes the subject look big and strong. This type of shot is
often used to make the hero of the story look powerful.
Pan
Description
The camera moves from left to right or vice versa. This is often used to show the audience
the whole setting, while still achieving more detail than an establishing shot would achieve.
Track
The camera moves forwards and backwards. This is often used to show characters running
and it helps the audience ‘stay close’ to the action.
Tilt
This is when the camera moves sideways to distort the perspective. This is used to create
disharmony in the frame.
Zoom
This occurs when the camera moves closer to the subject while the film is still rolling.
Zooming allows the viewer to get a closer look at a certain thing.
Lighting
Lighting creates significant emotional responses from the audience based on what people associate with light and darkness.
Lighting affects clarity, realism and emotion and helps to set the tone and/or mood of a scene.
Lighting type
Description
High-key lighting
This allows for everything in the frame to be seen with few
shadows; American comedies and musicals tend to be shot in
high-key lighting.
Low-key lighting
This is more diffused and shadowy; scenes filmed in low-key
lighting tend to be predominantly dark. This type of lighting is
most commonly used in film noir, art-house and gangster
movies where themes are more morally murky or conflicted.
Three-point
lighting
This is an arrangement of key, fill and backlight, which provides
even illumination of the scene and, as a result, is the most
commonly used lighting in cinema. The light comes from three
directions to provide the subject with a sense of depth.
Mise-en-scène
Refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement.
 Props
 Framing
 Set design
 Colour palette
 Performance
Illustration
Production design
The visual aesthetic and concept of a film, television or theatre production; involves the design style for sets, locations,
graphics, props, lighting, camera angles and costume.
Costume
Costumes are specifically chosen for each character to best mirror that character’s emotional and physical needs. This is
important as it allows the viewer a greater insight into the character’s actions, attitudes and motivations.
Setting
The setting involves where and when events of the story take place, the social and cultural background and the context of a
story.
Visual motifs and metaphors
 Visual motif – a repeated idea, image or pattern throughout a film; they help to reveal a theme of a text.
 Visual metaphor – the representation of a person, place, thing or idea by means of a visual image that suggests a
particular association or point of similarity.
Verbal features
Sound
Sound is added to simulate reality, add or create something off scene that is not really there and to help the director create a
mood or tone.
 Diegetic sound – sound that originates naturally from the scene (dialogue, background noise, sound of things in the
scene).
 Non-diegetic sound – sound that has been added to a scene that cannot be heard by characters but is designed for
the audience reaction (sound effects, soundtrack, music).
Dialogue
Dialogue serves to tell the story and expresses the feelings and motivations of characters. Dialogue includes the language,
accent, dialect and even vocal intonation (the way they speak) of the characters, which all provides some idea about the
characters’ personalities, backgrounds and situations.
Visual and verbal features
Editing
The creative and technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking where shots are assembled into a coherent
sequence and sound, music and visual effects are added.
 Cut- two pieces of film are spliced together to cut to another image.
 Fade – can be to or from black and white; implies the passing of time or the end of a scene.
 Dissolve – a kind of fade in which one image is gradually replaced by another.
 Wipe – a new image wipes off the previous image (quicker than a dissolve).
 Flashback – cut or dissolve to action that happened in the past.
 Shot-Reverse-Shot – a shot of one subject, then another, then back to the first; often used for conversation or
reaction shots.
 Cross-Cutting – cut into action that is happening simultaneously; creates tension or suspense and creates a
connection between scenes.
 Eye-Line Match – cut to an object, then to a person; can reveal a character’s thoughts.
Performance
The ability for the actor to bring his or her character to life within the framework of the story. His or her emotional input
dictates how strongly the audience feels about the film. Acting depends upon gestures and movement, expression and voice.
 Method acting – a naturalistic method, the method actor’s job is to become one with the character’s mannerisms,
dress, upbringing, etc. He or she must be that character to the point where they are no longer distinguishable.
 Non-method acting – a stylised method, the non-method actor’s job is to rely on a more conspicuous approach to get
the director’s point across. They will overact, hyperbolise certain characteristics in an effort to dramatise, or
alternatively, to undercut for a comic relief.
Characterisation
Characterisation refers to the methods used to build an idea of a person.
 Name
 Physical characteristics
 Speech
 Actions
 Personality
 Motivation and values
 Strengths and weaknesses
 Relationships
 Responses to various situations
 Development – how the character changes
Genre conventions
Each genre has a collection of predictable aspects, from the use of canned laughter and high-key lighting in comedies to fake
blood and reaction shots in thrillers. Genre conventions are all the little parts of a specified genre such as character similarities
and repeated plots that allow us to distinguish between genres. Most genres have elements that the audience expects as they
have been used many times in previous films from their genre.
Close Reading Questions.
Answer the following questions as you watch the film. Be sure to give full and detailed answers.
Part I.
00:00:00-00:35:30
Timeline of Events: At the end of the segment, write down at least three bullet points that summarise the major events.
1.
2.
3.
Quotations and Specific Evidence: As you read, write down any important or significant quotations that are examples of the
themes and ideas in the film: Identity and belonging; Class struggles; Love and sexuality; Teenage apathy; Relationships.
End of Segment Questions: Answer these questions directly on the page.
The film opens with the quote: “Anybody who talks about California hedonism has never spent a Christmas in Sacramento.”
How does this help to position the viewer?
Explain the significance of the overhead shot to introduce Lady Bird and her mum.
What does Lady Bird and her mum’s interaction in the car reveal about their relationship?
Why does Lady Bird jump out of the car? What does this tell us about her?
What clues do we get about the social-political context of the film in the high school sequence?
How does Lady Bird respond to Sister Sarah Joan’s suggestion to join the school theatre programme?
What does the viewer learn about Lady Bird’s and Julie’s relationship? How is this shown?
What type of shot is used to show Lady Bird and Julie walking down the “beautiful” neighbourhood? What does their
conversation tell us about their class?
Embarrassed by her dad’s car, Lady Bird asks to be dropped off before school. Describe how one aspect is used to do this.
Describe the significance of the overhead shot of Lady Bird and Julie eating Communion wafers.
How does Lady Bird respond to Danny’s audition? How is this shown?
Why does Lady Bird steal the magazine from the supermarket? How is this rebellious behaviour shown?
What aspects are used to help develop Lady Bird’s crush on Danny at the supermarket?
Is Lady Bird aware or concerned about her mum’s financial situation at the checkout? How do we know?
How is romance between Lady Bird and Danny shown through non-diegetic sound and low-key lighting while they are talking
after the school dance?
What does Marion reveal to Lady Bird about her dad?
What editing techniques are used to show Lady Bird’s and Danny’s relationship in the garden sequence?
Describe the significance of the overhead shot of Lady Bird and Danny under the stars.
Why do you think Danny tells Lady Bird he “respects” her too much to touch her?
How does Marion truly feel about Lady Bird spending her last Thanksgiving away? What type of shot is used to show this?
How does Lady Bird respond to Danny’s family’s affluence? Is the viewer positioned to believe in their relationship?
What does Shelly communicate to Lady Bird about her mum?
Why does Lady Bird’s relationship with Danny end?
Describe the significance of the overhead shot of Lady Bird and Julie in the car.
Part II.
00:35:30-00:47:32
Timeline of Events: At the end of the segment, write down at least three bullet points that summarise the major events.
1.
2.
3.
Quotations and Specific Evidence: As you read, write down any important or significant quotations that are examples of the
themes and ideas in the film: Identity and belonging; Class struggles; Love and sexuality; Teenage apathy; Relationships.
End of Segment Questions: Answer these questions directly on the page.
Gerwig contrasts Lady Bird’s relationship with her mother to her relationship with her father. How does she do this?
Why is Lady Bird working at a coffee shop?
How are Lady Bird and Kyle introduced? Is it awkward? How so? Is Lady Bird aware of this?
How does Lady Bird attempt to bond with Jenna?
Why do you think Lady Bird ditches tryouts for the new play? Has something changed?
Lady Bird’s and Jenna’s vandalism of Sister Sarah Joan’s is another example of a rebellious act by Lady Bird. What is she trying
to prove?
What does Lady Bird’s lie about where she lives reveal about her self-esteem?
Lady Bird says her mum made her get a job to teach her “responsibility.” What do you think the real reason is?
Why does Danny plead with Lady Bird not to tell anyone he is gay? How is his fear and shame shown?
Part III.
00:47:32-00:58:06
Timeline of Events: At the end of the segment, write down at least three bullet points that summarise the major events.
1.
2.
3.
Quotations and Specific Evidence: As you read, write down any important or significant quotations that are examples of the
themes and ideas in the film: Identity and belonging; Class struggles; Love and sexuality; Teenage apathy; Relationships.
End of Segment Questions: Answer these questions directly on the page.
What do Lady Bird and Kyle reveal when making out?
Describe Lady Bird’s conversation with her mum in the bathroom? What does she learn about her dad? How does her opinion
of money differ to her mum’s?
How does Lady Bird get suspended? Describe this scene.
How does Marion react to Lady Bird’s suspension? Describe the state of their relationship at this point. What aspects
demonstrate this rift best?
What does Lady Bird say she will do to repay her mum for raising her?
Davis uses a close-up shot of the TV during a report on the war in Iraq. Why does she make these allusions to 9/11 and the
war?
How does Lady Bird’s lie about where she lives come out? How does Jenna react?
Part IV.
00:58:06-01:14:15
Timeline of Events: At the end of the segment, write down at least three bullet points that summarise the major events.
1.
2.
3.
Quotations and Specific Evidence: As you read, write down any important or significant quotations that are examples of the
themes and ideas in the film: Identity and belonging; Class struggles; Love and sexuality; Teenage apathy; Relationships.
End of Segment Questions: Answer these questions directly on the page.
Why does Lady Bird get upset with Kyle after she loses her virginity to him? What shots are used to communicate this?
What shot is used when Lady Bird breaks down to her mum in the car?
What “favourite Sunday” activity do Lady Bird and Marion do? What does this show us about their relationship?
Lady Bird is rejected by most East Coast liberal arts schools but is accepted at UC Davis in California. She is also put on a
waiting list for a New York college. Why does she not want her mum to know?
What does Larry’s job loss/job search reveal about the context/setting of the film?
Gerwig conveys a very real and authentic dynamic between Lady Bird and her mum. How is this shown in the changing room
scene?
Why does Lady Bird not want to go to the house party instead of prom?
How do Lady Bird and Julie make amends? What shot is used to show this?
Part V.
01:14:15-01:21:53
Timeline of Events: At the end of the segment, write down at least three bullet points that summarise the major events.
1.
2.
3.
Quotations and Specific Evidence: As you read, write down any important or significant quotations that are examples of the
themes and ideas in the film: Identity and belonging; Class struggles; Love and sexuality; Teenage apathy; Relationships.
End of Segment Questions: Answer these questions directly on the page.
Marion doesn’t speak with Lady Bird for the rest of the summer after Danny reveals she is on a New York college waiting list.
Why do you think this is? How is this shown?
What techniques does Gerwig use to show the passing of time?
Describe the scene when Larry shares a cupcake with Lady Bird for her birthday.
What does Lady Bird buy to celebrate her adulthood once she turns 18?
How is music used to convey Lady Bird’s joy when she learns she is accepted into the New York college?
How can Lady Bird afford to go to college in New York?
Describe the montage when Lady Bird paints and prepares her room. Does this symbolize anything? What is her mum doing?
How does Marion act when she and Larry drop Lady Bird off at the airport?
What shot conveys Marion’s loneliness in the car when she drives off at the airport? How does music support this?
How does Larry console Marion?
Part VI.
01:21:53-01:29:19
Timeline of Events: At the end of the segment, write down at least three bullet points that summarise the major events.
1.
2.
3.
Quotations and Specific Evidence: As you read, write down any important or significant quotations that are examples of the
themes and ideas in the film: Identity and belonging; Class struggles; Love and sexuality; Teenage apathy; Relationships.
End of Segment Questions: Answer these questions directly on the page.
How does Gerwig contrast Sacramento and New York City? Think about the editing, shots, mise-en-scene, and music.
What surprise does Lady Bird find in her luggage? Who put them there?
Why does Lady Bird go by her real name again?
Why is Lady Bird hospitalized? What does this say about her loss of innocence?
What type of shot is used to show Lady Bird walking through Manhattan after she is released from hospital? How does this
replicate the shot of her and Julie walking down the “beautiful” neighbourhood?
What draws Lady Bird into the church on her way home from the hospital? Why is she moved to tears?
What does Lady Bird communicate to her mum in her voicemail? How was this told? Through which film aspects?
Key Scenes.
Visual feature
Effect of visual/verbal feature(s)
Verbal feature
Visual feature
Verbal feature
Effect of visual/verbal feature(s)
Visual feature
Effect of visual/verbal feature(s)
Verbal feature
Visual feature
Verbal feature
Effect of visual/verbal feature(s)
Visual feature
Effect of visual/verbal feature(s)
Verbal feature
Visual feature
Verbal feature
Effect of visual/verbal feature(s)
Readings and Additional Information.
Lyric Movie Review: ‘Lady Bird’ is fueled by themes of class, belonging
By Nick Botkin; Collegian; 28/11/2017
A protagonist lives on the wrong side of tracks. Sound familiar?
You might be inclined to run from the impending cliché train. Not so fast.
In Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird,” the tracks serve as a geographical boundary between class. On one side, live the struggling middle
class, on the other, the beau monde of Sacramento.
Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, played by Saoirse Ronan, lives on the wrong side, of course. Living with her parents, brother
and his girlfriend, she is cognizant of her class status. Lady Bird attends a rigorous Catholic school, which her parents can barely
afford. Her father, played by Tracy Letts, is laid off from his job. Such moments of awareness abound. One telling
moment occurs in a store when Lady Bird and her mother Marion admire a fancy dress. In the next scene, the mother is sewing
a precise replica of the dress.
Of course, any good protagonist has desires. And Lady Bird’s desires are abundantly clear: Escape. Lady Bird is obsessed by
escape, to the point of applying to colleges back East. To Lady Bird, the East is a bulwark of everything artistic.
“I want to go somewhere where culture is,” Lady Bird proclaims, not a little pompously.
Escape also manifests itself in Lady Bird ingratiating herself with wealthier crowds. Her own best friend Jules is left behind in
the weary world of the 99 percenters. At one point, Lady Bird even claims that a classmate’s sprawling home is her own.
In Gerwig’s film, characters long for personal agency. When Lady Bird attends a wealthy friend’s Thanksgiving dinner, her mother
Marion is both angered by and envious of her daughter’s opportunity. Lady Bird’s laid-off, aging father yearns for relevance in
a changing world.
While the movie nicely addresses themes of class, there are a number of questions unresolved, namely the mother-daughter
tensions. This is a shame, because there is much potential here. Laurie Metcalf, in particular, brings a great deal of manic
energy to the role of Marion McPherson. Mother and daughter bicker over every conceivable subject, namely classes, personal
habits and collegiate choices.
“You do not think of anyone but yourself,” Marion proclaims.
There is more than an ounce of truth here. But we need to understand the mother better as well. Marion McPherson does not
feel like a three-dimensional character. There are clear hints of complexity and a more tender side, but they are not
fully pursued. At one point, we learn that Marion’s own background was rife with abuse, but we also need to understand
Marion’s own desires. Knowing these desires would have given Marion’s actions more weight emotionally.
In terms of desires, I also wanted a better sense of Lady Bird’s concrete desires back East. It was not clear how Lady Bird saw
her life beyond the prism of escape. How might the arts have offered that escape? Why was she drawn to the arts?
The Sexual Politics of ‘Lady Bird’
By Emily Tamkin; New America; 7/12/2017
Lady Bird is not a political movie. It tells the story of a lower-middle-class student in her last year of high school, in 2002—a
particularly fraught political moment in recent American history, what with the hanging-chad election of George W. Bush, the
aftermath of 9/11, and the prelude to the war in Iraq—and how this student grapples with family, friendship, and her own
identity. It is presented as a coming-of-age story, one that cannot be summed up in any slogan or scene.
That said, Lady Bird is composed of scenes, one of which replayed in my mind this week, as America barreled into the third
month of headlines and allegations about men sexually harassing and assaulting women.
The scene—spoiler alert—comes in the second half of the movie. The titular character (played by Saoirse Ronan), is thinking, as
young people do, about sex—having it, not having it, wondering when they’ll have it—and the concept of virginity—having it,
losing it, considering it a sort of gauzy dividing line between girlhood and womanhood. She is in bed with Kyle (Timothée
Chalamet), her second boyfriend of the film. She had previously said that she was a virgin; he had previously said that he was,
too. They have sex. She marvels at how they were both each other’s firsts (“We have each other’s flowers,” she coos). He tells
her that he was not, in fact, a virgin. She yells at him. He reminds her that there are people dying at war (this line elicited laughter
at the viewing I was at). She yells back that things can be not about war but still be sad. She asks if they are still going to prom
together. She gets in her mother’s car and cries. Viewers get the sense that her mother’s talk about condoms did not prepare
her for this. Lady Bird moves on with her life. We move on with the movie. Later, she tells a friend that she prefers dry humping
to sex.
That scene, at once darkly funny and heartbreaking, is not about sexual harassment or sexual assault or rape, but still, somehow,
about sex and manipulation, and sex and power, and sex as it is considered by some: a game, one girls seem set up to lose. That
scene, too, is about agency over one’s own body, and the thousand subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which that is taken from
girls and women. It isn’t followed up by the character writing a diaristic think piece or a counter-think piece, or by a protest or
a movement. But it is there, all the same, in the course of the character’s life, waiting to be dealt with, or not.
And, I thought of how, if Lady Bird—or Christine, as she calls herself again, once she goes to college—were really a high-school
senior in 2002, then she would be in her early 30s in 2017. She would have likely encountered, in that decade and a half, several
other men who thought, in personal and professional settings, that her body was theirs to look at and touch and use, in one
way or another, without asking, or under conditions to which she never agreed. It would not matter in which city Lady Bird lives
or what field she enters, or whether or not she actually ends up making enough money to pay her parents back for raising her,
as she threatens to do in one scene. She would have learned how to navigate her body as a woman in the world—walking to
work and at work and after work—because she would have had to.
Fifteen years after Lady Bird yelled at her second boyfriend for having sex with her under false pretenses, hers would be a
president whom at least 20 women have accused of sexual assault, and for whom 53 percent of white women voters voted,
anyway. Maybe she would think, in this strange moment, of her second boyfriend senior year, who took what he wanted with
a kiss and a lie. Or, maybe she wouldn’t. Maybe she’d have moved too far on in her life.
Lady Bird was made before the first Harvey Weinstein exposé was published. But I like to think that it was not by accident that
a film that deals—subtly and with humor, yes, but still deals—with socioeconomic inequality, affirmative action, gay identity,
and depression and suicidal thoughts also includes, as part of a larger coming-of-age story, a scene in which a woman loses, and
tries to reclaim, agency over her own sexual experiences.
That, too, the movie seems to say with more authority and sincerity than a take or tweet could ever muster, is part of coming
of age for many girls and women. Coming to know that there are those in the world who would, maliciously or otherwise,
manipulate our bodies and what we do with them. Coming to understand how to yell at them that they were wrong. Coming to
determine whom to trust and tell (Lady Bird does not tell her mother, at least not in a conversation to which the audience is
privy). Coming to the realization that virginity is a construct, not an identity. Coming to whatever relationship we want to come
to about sex and sexuality, all the while learning that there are those who would dictate what that relationship is.
Coming to the sad admission that the first line of this essay is a lie, because to be a woman, and any number of other identities,
in America is, and always has been, political.
Youth in revolt: is Lady Bird the first truly feminist teen movie?
By Lara Williams; The Guardian; 20/02/2018
The teen movie is an often raucous affair: embryonic sexual stirrings, combative parent/child relationships and the heart-tugging
turbulence of post-adolescent friendship – which is why it is surprising to find Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut, Lady Bird, such
a quiet and understated film. But there is perhaps something about Gerwig’s delicacy of touch that lends clarity to one of the
film’s most resounding themes: its unapologetic feminism.
The central character (Saoirse Ronan) – unsatisfied with her comparatively drab given name, Christine – precociously assumes
the alias Lady Bird. She dresses in thrift-shop clothes, has clumsily dyed pink hair and dreams of leaving what she deems the
cultural wasteland of Sacramento, California, and her claustrophobic Catholic high-school – to study at a pricey liberal arts
college on the US east coast.
Lady Bird is in many ways a feminist recalibration of the sort of genre tropes associated with the teen film. It seemingly has
more in common with John Hughes’s hormonal outings in the 1980s than the 90s second wave (Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About
You), or even more contemporary takes on the genre (Easy A, The To Do List). Lady Bird has something of the everydayness of
Molly Ringwald’s various incarnations – minus the ramped-up passivity and recursive romantic trajectories that freighted many
of Hughes’s films. Lady Bird has two love interests: Danny (Lucas Hedges), a sweet fellow-member of her school’s drama
programme and Kyle (Timothée Chalamet), a disaffected musician of Jordan Catalano proportions. She breaks up with the
former after discovering him making out with a boy in a toilet cubicle, and tires of the latter on seeing through his calculated
pseudo-rebel persona.
Lady Bird regards neither romantic breakdown as a treatise on her general worth: how she values herself is almost entirely selfdetermined, a bullish sense of her potential. She comforts Danny on his struggle to come out, pressing his head to her chest and
tenderly raking through his hair – an instinct to nurture men perhaps inherited from her mother, who tiptoes around her father
as he struggles with depression. On learning Kyle is not a virgin (though he insinuated he was), after first having sex with him
(or anyone), she exclaims: “I was on top! Who the fuck is on top their first time!” Virginity is often a preoccupation in Hughes’s
films, and notably for Ringwald’s characters – but unlike in The Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles, Lady Bird’s virginity is not
symbolic of her failure to engage with life, nor her apparent innocence; like her short-lived relationships with men, sex is not
something she structures her identity around, rather a thing that happens.
Lady Bird’s more romantic subplot comes from her relationship with her best friend Julie: Julie and Lady Bird drift apart following
Lady Bird’s dalliance with a more popular girl, a relationship that is severed when she makes a cruel comment at the expense
of Julie’s mother. Teen films often reinforce the notion women can only find fulfilment via a conventional heterosexual coupling,
usually advanced by the man. Lady Bird subverts that, and the film’s romantic apex is found in Lady Bird and Julie’s reconciliation.
Lady Bird ditches Kyle and the cool girl en-route to the prom to return to Julie: they slow-dance under pastel-coloured streamers
then walk home holding their shoes.
But Lady Bird’s most significant relationship is surely with her mother Marion: the roundly wonderful Laurie Metcalf. Maternal
love is depicted with a necessary brutality: Marion perpetually chastises Lady Bird, telling her she’s unlikely to get into the eastcoast college of her dreams on account of her poor work ethic and bad grades. (Lady Bird throws herself out of a moving car in
response.) It is understood she is fostering in her daughter the grit and resolve required to exist in the world, a strength she
vividly inhabits. And Lady Bird, with her steely sense of a right to exist and an entitlement to pursue her ambitions, seems not
to have fallen too far from the tree. Lady Bird makes it to college in New York: at a party a co-ed asks her name, and after a
pause, she answers: “Christine.”
Autobiography and Family Drama in “Lady Bird”
By Derek Jacobs; Plot & Theme; 11/04/2018
Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird is a stirring coming-of-age story focusing on the relationship between a high school senior and her
mother. Saoirse Ronan plays Christine, but insists that everyone call her “Lady Bird”. Her relationship with her mother, played
by the excellent Laurie Metcalf, is fraught with complications – just like any mother-daughter relationship. Gerwig’s story has
obvious autobiographical aspects, lending the film a refreshing matter-of-fact feeling. Lady Bird is a flawed protagonist, and her
mother isn’t perfect either. Still, Lady Bird grows up a lot in the last year of high school, despite all the awkward romances and
familial tension. Though detractors may classify Lady Bird as a film that doesn’t take many risks, its themes are timeless, perfectly
executed, and packed with realism. Lady Bird is a resounding success from a first-time director, a seemingly-effortless bit of
cinematic mastery.
At its heart, Lady Bird is a character study. Lady Bird herself is a wistful adolescent, eager to grow up, leave Sacramento, and
experience a city with some culture. Her mother works tirelessly as a nurse, chastises Lady Bird for being ungrateful and not
putting in much of an effort at school, and struggles to show her daughter how much she cares.
Lady Bird attends the local Catholic Girls school, which is only made bearable by hanging out with her friend Julie and chasing
some boys from a companion school. Her adventures are typical of a girl her age. She obsesses over a hot boy, tries to get in
with the cool kids by lying about how much money her family has, and all of that teenage garbage. At times, she really isn’t a
very nice person. It genuinely feels like Gerwig is looking back at herself at a younger age and being fiercely honest with her
evaluation. That’s a universal feeling – we were all idiots in high school. Because it’s hard growing up.
Her mom doesn’t necessarily make it any easier – but it hard to say that she is wrong. She may be a little too harsh with the way
she delivers news to Lady Bird, or the way she disciplines her, but that’s a street that goes both ways. Lady Bird describes herself
as being “from the wrong side of the tracks”, which her first boyfriend thought was a joke – until he literally crosses some train
tracks to pick her up for Thanksgiving dinner. Metcalf’s face shows the depth of the wound – and also her scramble to conceal
it.
Lady Bird and her mother have a peculiar relationship. It’s obvious that they love each other, but nothing is prim-and-proper.
They each hurt the other with some careless words or actions. But then, they also have heartwarming discussions where they
are honest and exposed. It is a wonderful interaction, a beautiful characterization of two headstrong women learning the best
way to express their complex feelings for each other. This relationship is undoubtedly the heart of the film.
And yet, there are many intriguing ideas in Lady Bird. Like many coming-of-age films, this one deals with burgeoning sexuality
and love, but has some interesting wrinkles to it. The rest of the family dynamic produces some touching moments as well. Lady
Bird and her father have an outstanding rapport that helps counteract the prickly relationship with her mother. Plus, Lady Bird’s
brother and girlfriend add some value to a few key scenes. Overall, it’s a fleshed out family, and creates the perfect backdrop
for Lady Bird’s growth.
Because at the end of the day, Lady Bird really is about that peculiar form of love that can only come from family. Sacrifices and
ungratefulness are beget dress-shopping and heart-to-hearts. Money struggles beget faux house-shopping and shoulders to cry
on. There’s true love on display in Lady Bird despite all the anger, struggle, and difficulty. These can be hard things to understand
for a teenager, and even harder lessons to convey on the big screen, but here it all comes together beautifully.
Lady Bird is an impressive film, despite seeming fairly safe. Two pinnacle performances produce one of the most realistic, heartfelt, and bittersweet mother-daughter relationships in recent memory. The film shows a reverence for the vulnerability of the
teenage approach to the world, where everything is of paramount importance and yet nothing seems to matter. Gerwig’s story
is obviously personal, borrowing heavily from her own experiences and relationships, but this does not make her feat any less
amazing. In her debut, she has crafted a coming-of-age masterpiece that is is pregnant with powerful themes with remaining
comfortable with the ambiguity of becoming an adult.
Exploring Ideas.
Use the following table to begin thinking of how the main ideas and themes in the film are explored through different aspects
of the film. This will strengthen your understanding of the text and will make it easier to answer a range of different exam
questions/statements.
Idea
Explored
through
character
Explored
through
setting
Explored
through
conflict
Explored
through
event
Explored
through
symbols
Explored
through
language
technique
Explored
through
structure
Practice Statements.
The following statements have been taken from the previous five years of the 3.2 Visual Text NCEA examination and can be
applied to the visual text that you have studied. Answers should be supported by specific details from your chosen texts.
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A skilful combination of sound and vision is the best way to convey a message.
The deliberate treatment of time is a key element in a meaningful text.
A skilful director or creator carefully creates discomfort in the audience.
The significance of the beginning becomes clear only at the end.
The moments in a text that criticise society are those that teach us the most.
The relationship between a character and their environment reveals important ideas.
Small details that are easily overlooked are essential to the full understanding of a text.
Great texts achieve their purpose by challenging the audience on many levels.
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The larger-than-life hero is an appealing character.
The most successful texts are those that deal with universal problems.
Fantasy is an effective tool to comment on reality.
The use of contrasting settings is a way to develop powerful ideas.
A happy ending always leaves an audience satisfied.
A character on a journey takes the audience with them.
The idea behind a text is the thing that matters.
To be convincing, a text needs to appeal to our senses.
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New Zealand film gives us a lens through which we can see ourselves.
The uncomfortable moments in a text teach us the most.
It is the careful use of technical elements that makes a text memorable.
It is the way that characters change in a text that makes them human.
A text set in a challenging environment has much to teach us.
Symbols are a rich source of meaning in an effective text.
To be successful, a text must bring us moments of joy.
The effective use of fantasy has much to show us about real life.
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
The most engaging texts are those that deal with the complexities of life.
For a text to be appealing, the audience must see the protagonist in conflict.
An effective text is one which has contrasting or changing settings.
To communicate ideas throughout, a text must have a striking opening.
What matters most to viewers is not what a text makes them think, but how it makes them feel.
Texts which deserve attention are those that challenge our thinking.
The use of technical aspects is essential to engage the emotions of an audience.
The key to a successful text is a happy ending.
The most effective villain is one who both attracts and repels.
A clever use of structure is the best way to create drama.
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The director’s primary concern is to create a perfect combination of visual and verbal elements.
It is not until the closing of the text that we truly understand the importance of the opening.
A satisfying text is one in which the message is timeless.
It is the grim moments of a text that engage us most.
A successful text has multiple ways of shaping our understanding.
A memorable text is one in which the audience can see and/or hear themselves.
Effective settings help us to understand the ideas that lie beneath the surface.
For a text to be appealing it needs to have a heroic character.
A director or creator is successful when they take the audience away from comfort and security.
At the core of an effective text is a dynamic relationship.
Suggested Essay Structure.
The following is the first stage in constructing your analysis essay at level three. Remember the essay question changes at each
level in NCEA English and this year you will asked to analyse different aspects in the text to address/answer a statement.
Step 1: Select a statement and write it at the top of your page. Highlight the key terms in the statement. This is to ensure your
planning and writing remain on topic and address the statement fully.
Example: The most successful texts are those that deal with universal problems
I need to address this part of the
statement throughout my essay.
My essay will be about three universal
problems in the text
Rewrite the statement into an answer/thesis statement before constructing your introduction:
Lady Bird’s success lies largely in its ability to deal with universal problems of class struggle, sexuality, and parental
relationships.
Step 2: Compose your draft introduction. The purpose of an introduction is twofold: to answer the essay question and indicate
what text you will use to answer the question. The following table includes what you should include in your introduction and an
example introduction.
What to include
Introduce the text, date,
genre, and director
Provide a brief overview of
the text.
Provide an answer to the
essay question.
Identify the aspects you
will incorporate in order.
Example
Lady Bird is a 2017 coming-of-age film directed by Greta Gerwig.
It is set in Sacramento, California in 2002 and explores the fraught relationship between
the self-proclaimed “Lady Bird” and her mother, Marion, during her final year of high
school. Throughout the film, Lady Bird eagerly delves into adulthood and secretly plans to
go to college in New York while Marion tries to deal with the inevitable loss of her
daughter.
Lady Bird’s success lies largely in its ability to deal with universal problems of class
struggle, sexuality, and parental relationships.
These are developed through the clever use of a variety of aspects, such as:
cinematography, dialogue, music, and editing.
Remember to underline novel titles in your essays.
When you put them all together, your introduction will read:
Lady Bird is a 2017 coming-of-age film directed by Greta Gerwig. It is set in Sacramento, California in 2002 and explores the
fraught relationship between the self-proclaimed “Lady Bird” and her mother, Marion, during her final year of high school.
Throughout the film, Lady Bird eagerly delves into adulthood and secretly plans to go to college in New York while Marion tries
to deal with the inevitable loss of her daughter. Lady Bird’s success lies largely in its ability to deal with universal problems of
class struggle, sexuality, and parental relationships. These are developed through the clever use of a variety of aspects, such as:
dialogue, cinematography, music, and editing.
Step 3: Compose your draft analysis paragraphs. The purpose of these paragraphs is to break down the feature or subject in
the statement to demonstrate how it is linked to the main idea or purpose of the text. At level three there is not a set structure
to the questions like there is at level two so you generally compose three main points/ideas to address the statement. Whatever
you are analysing must link back to the essay statement. The following table includes what you should include in your body
paragraphs and an example paragraph. You should aim to compose three analysis paragraphs to support the answer to the
essay question.
Example: The most successful texts are those that deal with universal problems
The following paragraphs have to focus on how three universal problems are communicated
in the text. For most statements at level 3, you would use one idea per paragraph.
What to include
P – POINT. This is your topic
sentence, which should express
your main point for the
paragraph using language from
the essay statement and
introduce your two film
techniques.
E – EXAMPLE. Incorporate
evidence from the text (your two
film techniques/aspects) that will
support your main argument.
E – EXPLANATION. Explain what
the techniques/aspects
communicate and why they are
important.
L – LINK. Link your argument to
the author’s purpose, and
comment on the significance of
the point to wider society and
answer the essay statement.
Example
The universal problem of class struggle is an important idea in the text that adds to
its success and is aided through the use of cinematography and dialogue.
Lady Bird is from a struggling working-class family and often communicates her
frustration with her low socio-economic status. Gerwig uses wide shots in a montage
of Lady Bird and her friend, Julie, walking through one of Sacramento’s wealthier
neighbourhoods as they imagine themselves living in the beautiful houses around
them. Dialogue is used to support this when Lady Bird says, “I’d have friends over all
the time to study and eat snacks. I’d be like, ‘Mom, we’re taking the snacks upstairs
to the TV room.’” Their class struggles are also highlighted during one of Lady Bird’s
arguments with her mum. Marion yells, “Your father doesn’t have a job. He lost his
job!”
The use of wide shots in the montage emphasise the large size of the houses
compared to the two girls and also contrasts with Lady Bird’s more modest, rundown home seen in other scenes. The conversation they have when imagining
themselves living in one of the affluent houses, while comedic, highlights the
universally understood class struggle for more. Similarly, Lady Bird’s argument with
her mum reminds the viewer of the family’s middle-class struggle to survive during a
difficult economic and political time in US history. The director emphasises these
aspects because they are important to position us to sympathise and connect with
her characters.
The class struggles of this typical family are a common experience that many viewers
can relate to. Gerwig relies on this experience to remind us not only of the economic
impacts of 9/11 on US families, but to prompt us to question our current politicaleconomic state now. Despite it being set in 2002, we find the same class struggles in
society today, with continued erosion of the middle class, low wages, and high cost of
living. The film’s reflection of this universal problem is ultimately what adds to its
success and makes it important to watch.
Remember to underline novel titles in your essays.
When you put them all together, your introduction will read:
The universal problem of class struggle is an important idea in the text that adds to its success and is aided through the use of
cinematography and dialogue. Lady Bird is from a struggling working-class family and often communicates her frustration with
her low socio-economic status. Gerwig uses wide shots in a montage of Lady Bird and her friend, Julie, walking through one of
Sacramento’s wealthier neighbourhoods as they imagine themselves living in the beautiful houses around them. Dialogue is used
to support this when Lady Bird says, “I’d have friends over all the time to study and eat snacks. I’d be like, ‘Mom, we’re taking
the snacks upstairs to the TV room.’” Their class struggles are also highlighted during one of Lady Bird’s arguments with her
mum. Marion yells, “Your father doesn’t have a job. He lost his job!” The use of wide shots in the montage emphasise the large
size of the houses compared to the two girls and also contrasts with Lady Bird’s more modest, run-down home seen in other
scenes. The conversation they have when imagining themselves living in one of the affluent houses, while comedic, highlights
the universally understood class struggle for more. Similarly, Lady Bird’s argument with her mum reminds the viewer of the
family’s middle-class struggle to survive during a difficult economic and political time in US history. The director emphasises
these aspects because they are important to position us to sympathise and connect with her characters. The class struggles of
this typical family are a common experience that many viewers can relate to. Gerwig relies on this experience to remind us not
only of the economic impacts of 9/11 on US families, but to prompt us to question our current political-economic state now.
Despite it being set in 2002, we find the same class struggles in society today, with continued erosion of the middle class, low
wages, and high cost of living. The film’s reflection of this universal problem is ultimately what adds to its success and makes it
important to watch.
Step 4: After completing your analysis paragraphs, you will finish with your conclusion. Your conclusion is the time to summarise
your analysis and establish the connections and links between them. It will also allow you to present your perspective on the
essay statement and consider the wider implications of the topic (sometimes referred to as ‘beyond the text’).
What to include
Restate the answer to your
essay question.
Examine and explore the links
between the analysis and how,
combined, they support the
topic. Ask yourself how are the
things related?
Your perspective or wider
implications.
Example
Lady Bird is a successful text because of its ability to deal with universal problems of
class struggle, sexuality, and parental relationships. Gerwig uses cinematography,
dialogue, music, and editing to communicate these ideas effectively.
When you consider these three ideas, the common link between them is that they all
describe the human experience, especially as it relates to growing up. The class
struggle Lady Bird experiences as a teen, her clumsy exploration of her sexuality, and
her complicated relationship with her mum all communicate a message about the
pains everyone experiences when growing up and coming of age.
Though the film is fictional, its exploration into these very human and universally
experienced ideas are captivating and familiar. Gerwig’s message for the viewer is
layered. Her portrayal of Lady Bird’s class struggle reflects a typical American family
dealing with the financial impacts of 9/11 and causes us to question the state of our
own class almost two decades later. Her portrayal of Lady Bird’s sexuality similarly
captures the awkward experience all teenagers face and confronts you with
questions about your own prejudices. Finally, her portrayal of Lady Bird’s relationship
with her mum also reflects our own often complicated relationship with our parents
and what it means to leave to the nest.
Remember to underline novel titles in your essays.
When you put them all together, your introduction will read:
Lady Bird is a successful text because of its ability to deal with universal problems of class struggle, sexuality, and parental
relationships. Gerwig uses cinematography, dialogue, music, and editing to communicate these ideas effectively. When you
consider these three ideas, the common link between them is that they all describe the human experience, especially as it relates
to growing up. The class struggle Lady Bird experiences as a teen, her clumsy exploration of her sexuality, and her complicated
relationship with her mum all communicate a message about the pains everyone experiences when growing up and coming of
age. Though the film is fictional, its exploration into these very human and universally experienced ideas are captivating and
familiar. Gerwig’s message for the viewer is layered. Her portrayal of Lady Bird’s class struggle reflects a typical American family
dealing with the financial impacts of 9/11 and causes us to question the state of our own class almost two decades later. Her
portrayal of Lady Bird’s sexuality similarly captures the awkward experience all teenagers face and confronts you with questions
about your own prejudices. Finally, her portrayal of Lady Bird’s relationship with her mum also reflects our own often complicated
relationship with our parents and what it means to leave to the nest.
Step 5: Okay, so you’ve finished the steps and already dismissed everything in these sheets by saying, “That’s way too hard! I
can’t write like that! The teacher is being totally unrealistic. I don’t know that much about the film!”
Fact 1: No one is expecting you to know everything off the top of your head. Review your notes and study booklets created in
class. Read over the readings in the back of the booklet. They are there for a reason and that is to help expand and extend your
perspectives on the purpose of the book.
Fact 2: There are several online study guides that break down important quotations, provide a background and context to the
film, and analyse themes and characters. Look on OneNote for these clips and links.
Fact 3: There are past examination papers, questions and exemplars posted on the NZQA website that can be easily downloaded
and saved to study and prepare from.
https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/assessment/view-detailed.do?standardNumber=91473
Fact 4: Research more about the director or the theme online. If you don’t know something, how long does it really take to jump
on your device, search and read some results online?
Fact 5: This is an external examination, so you can submit as many drafts as you like. You can also ask your family, friends and
peers to read over your work and provide you some feedback. Sometimes it is the conversations you have with others that
extend your thoughts and perspectives on a topic further.
Finally, resist the temptation to quit and dismiss it as being too hard. Essay writing is a skill that everyone can learn and succeed
in, so long as you recognise that it is a process. You may go through several drafts and ideas before it really comes together. As
an English student, there is nothing more satisfying than achieving well on an essay, where you have articulated your ideas and
perspectives. Best of luck and please let me know if you’re having difficulties.